picking and eating skin from feet and fingers... what is this?

Hi, I'm Sadie. I'm 11 Ganna be 12 soon, I'v been doing this for like 3 years now i felt so alone for so long but not any more, thank you for this site.. I tried to quit but it started again I have a hard time walking because of it.I'm so so glad i'm not alone thanks I want to stop but the habit is so strong it's hard.. 0_o Love Sadie

First off I want to say I can’t believe this thread has been going on for 8 years! Anyway, I’m 25 and I’ve been picking since I was a kid. I bite the skin off around my nails, and then eat it. I also do it with my toes and the bottom of my feet, I love the texture of the skin between my teeth, I’ll chew on it for up to 30 minutes, the thicker the “chunk” the better, I also love the flavor, sometimes I feel sick about myself because I feel like a cannibal but I would never put someone else’s skin in my mouth for me it’s not the same. Sometimes I rip up the feet so bad I can hardly walk for days. I also pull out my eyelashes, which I heard it associated with “skin picking” I don’t eat that though. I’ve been trying to figure out a way to stop myself, I know it’s usually a neurological disorder but can also stem through severe stress, childhood trauma, etc. my childhood wasn’t horrible, and I don’t deal with much more stress than the average human, for me I’m assuming I suffer from the neuro disorder, I know there’s no known cure for most mental health illnesses other than balancing out chemicals in your brain with pills, but it doesn’t help my picking. I’m currently taking Celexa for my anxiety because I started to development agrophobia from it. I suffer from a wide range of mental health disorders including severe anxiety which has ended me up in the hospital on more than one occasion, I was diagnosed with PTSD over something traumatic I dealt with when I was 21, I also have depression, and now finding out this could be OCD or I even read it could be categorized on the autistic spectrum has me worried, I’m not ashamed of my mental illnesses at all, I speak pretty openly about them, but to think this is ANOTHER mental disorder to add to my growing list is just exhausting. I’ve been sucicdal before so I’m just worried, maybe that’s my anxiety kicking in again. Anyway I kinda started ranting I’m just glad there’s more people in the world that pick and chew than just me. I hope someday we can find a “cure” per say.

Hi! I'm Tanya! I'm 20 years old and I've been picking and chewing on my skin since I can last remember. I chew around my nails, middle of my thumb, bottom of my feet, inside of cheeks, inside of lower lips and my lips. My lips are chapped 90% of my life because I can never just leave them alone and the inside of my cheeks are so gross. My dentist has commented on numerous occasions and has tried to get me to stop but I can't! Reading all your comments made me so happy because I thought I was a crazy person and felt so embarrassed by this. I just really want to know why it's so satisfying to bite down on skin. I LOVE checking the bottom of my feet after I get out the shower to see if there is any skin to peel! It's also ridiculous how many times I've been caught with my finger in my mouth trying to peel off skin from the inside of my cheeks and how embarrassing it is wh I don't stop. I don't know if I'll ever grow out of it

I just found this blog and I have been bitting my nails and picking t scbs since I was a small child. As I got older it progressed to my cuticles,feet,etc. I am now 48 yrs old and I have gone through almost all of those years with bitten up disgusting lookiing nails and cuticles, but its not just the fingers, I pick at my feet, scabs and anything else that can be picked....LOLzz... m much happy to found that i m not alone anymore

I have the exact same thing and I'm 14 too any thing you've learn that might help

I wrote this piece in 2015. I’m sure many of you will relate to it. Through writing I have come to terms with my emotions.

Ripping

I rip and chew at my edges
Trying to eradicate
Placate
Eleviate
My pain
The anxiety
The part of me that threatens to freeze
My mental disease
The part I hope no one sees
The inner demons I wish to appease

The tattoos that your artistry
Injected
Under my skin
With invisible ink
Yet I feel it there with the words I think
As I claw and bite into my pink

I wish to be smoothed out
Cared about
As the blood appears it calms my shout
Exquisite pleasure wrapped in the pain
With it, some level of relief I attain

I tell myself
I can't
I won't
do it again
Yet with chewing
I feel my inner turmoil wane
The weaker bits
The inner head stitches
It helps me scratch, those indiscernible itches
Stopping the soul twitches

In shame I hide my hands
Fingers and things
The evidence my body sings
Strategicly placed
My problems kind of erased
In fabric bandages encased
Still desperation has a taste
Inner turmoil only temporarily chased

Was I designed for this
Some kind of inner sickness
Expressed in a serpent's kiss
As I'm hypnotized by it's hiss
I wonder
Is there a way
to fix this
I wish to be
a fully healed
Calmer witness
Perhaps this is my litmus
Another test I fail
For I'm a blind man
Who can't read braille

I'm bound by ropes
That help me cope
Evidence I can't wash away with soap
I wanted your yes
But always got your nope
Became an inner pauper
Surrounded by hope
Still deep down I feel like a dope

I know I have much to be thankful for
Greatly blessed I can't ask for more
Still I fear what might be waiting for me
An imaginary enemy
Hidden behind the next door
Threatening my hope for a peaceful shore
Still I know this inner tension is a gift
It's a wave on which, I've been given a lift
It helps me travel far and swift
As within life's currents I hear the music shift.
There is a tune I wish to sing
Above the maddening ring
A new place from which I wish to begin
Beyond tattoos
And cracked and bleeding skin.
Peaceful rivers
Flowing from within.

Unfortunately the poems formatting was eliminated when it posted here. I hope the piece still makes sense.

Hi, i am Kathy. I'm 13 years old. I have eaten my skin for a number of years now (maybe since I was 8). I always feel guilty of doing it. I mostly do it in class or when I'm alone. Where ever I find a piece of lose skin I will pick around that area until it bleeds. When I get desperate for skin I get the nail clippers and push down on my heal and clip away and then eat the excess skin. I really would like a way to stop myself before I get any worse. I haven't ever told anyone because I'm way too embarrassed about it. Thanks, Kathy.

you don't know how much relief I got when I found this.
I always thought I was alone
I don't know when I started but I know I started with picking scabs and I guess progressed over the years. I'm 23 years old and as I right this, my left foot is bleeding because I pulled off all the skin on my heel and ate it.
I can't walk properly and I pinned it on my arthritis when my boyfriend came in and asked why I was covering my leg with a bandage( I've put gauze so that it absorbs the blood)
I've been diagnosed with depression, social anxiety disorder (I get full on panic attacks just going to the door) and BPD... I guess this has become another thing in the list of mental health disorders I have
thank you for this group. It really took a load off my shoulders sharing this

Hello there. I'm only 14 years old, and imagine my surprise that I'm not the only one that does this... I've been doing this for 9 years now, and have been always afraid to tell friends about what I am doing. At first, it all started when I saw my sister picking at her nails and I started to do it too. And then it got to my nails, then my skin and my feet. I always have this weird satisfaction when this... happens. But when it does happen, my parents used to threaten me to call my doctor... I even try to grow out my skin and nails, but whenever it grows out enough it's gone when it grows out. So now, I just do it in my free time, and in school. Mostly to my fingers. (I still think I'm a weirdo)

Hi I do the same thing as well. I have been peeling the skin off my feet and fingers and eating it. I do know how you feel when you said that you pick your feet so bad that it bleeds and hurts to walk for a few days. But I've gotten so bad if I can't get a spother started on my foot in will take a razer blade and cut just the top layer of my heel not to make it bleed but after its started then it will bleed. I'm glad I stumbled upon this website. Been doing this for years and I don't see myself stopping any time soon. So your not the only one wish I could meet you in person then we could share our compulsion and see who could get the bigger peice off our feet lol . But all joking aside we need help thx for reading and understanding

Hi. I also belong here. I have developed an f******* annoying habit of, you guessed it, skin picking and eating. I only eat from my feet, when they look "delicious" like after an shower. They look terrible, and hurt when i am walking because some muscles are even showing. I will try to, again, stop this starting tomorrow. Hope me luck because that is an thing i will need.

I sit here and have to pull myself away from picking to type this. I have been doing this about as long as I can remember, but recently things have been really distressing-- divorce, with custody issues. I make at least 2 of my toes/fingers bleed everyday, at least once a day. My skin pulls off in sheets where the thickest callouses are... it has always been an issue, but it seems to be more disruptive and disgusting than previous. My left thumb has been disfigured for years... the thumb nail is so rearranged. I have told psychiatrist's about all this, and they act like it is no big deal, they tell me to just quit doing it.... it's nice to know I am not alone. Thank you.

I sit here and have to pull myself away from picking to type this. I have been doing this about as long as I can remember, but recently things have been really distressing-- divorce, with custody issues. I make at least 2 of my toes/fingers bleed everyday, at least once a day. My skin pulls off in sheets where the thickest callouses are... it has always been an issue, but it seems to be more disruptive and disgusting than previous. My left thumb has been disfigured for years... the thumb nail is so rearranged. I have told psychiatrist's about all this, and they act like it is no big deal, they tell me to just quit doing it.... it's nice to know I am not alone. Thank you.

Hi guys, I am 21 and I am a bad skin picker. I am new to SkinPick so here's hoping it works!!! How do I start a topic by the way?

i am so happy to have found this! i'm a 16 year old female, and i've been picking the skin off of the bottoms of my feet (mainly the heels and on the side of my big toes) and eating it since i was maybe 11. i also eat the skin around my fingernails, and my finger/toenails themselves. i thought that i was the only person that did this... but clearly not, and i am relieved. it makes sense that this is connected with an obsessive disorder. i was diagnosed with ocd alongside 3 other depressive and anxiety-related disorders last fall. each day i am learning more and more about what it means to have compulsions, and i never really connected this habit with that part of my life and experience until now.
sometimes i feel like i can't stop because i want to make the surface on my heel(s) as smooth as possible after i start peeling and eating the skin. i am constantly worried that people will see the torn up bottoms of my feet and get weirded out, especially my boyfriend and family. they are very understanding but i feel as though this isn't something that they've encountered before...

I AM SO HAPPY THAT I’M NOT THE ONLY ONE THAT DOES THIS!!!! My name is Corynne and I am 13 years old. I have been picked the skin of my feet for a few years now. I have ADHD and OCD, I was really embarrassed that I did this, and kids would make fun of me of me for it. I always find myself cutting the skin off with nail clippers or scissors, literally anything. I have no idea why I eat it, I used to hate it but now I am absolutely addicted. I thought I was the only one that did this, it’s nice to know I’m not alone.

Hi umm I’m so glad this isn’t just me.
I’m so freaked out by this like is it a form of self harm? I’m so scared like I’ve always been one to pop my pimples and pick at my skin and as a child would eat the skin around my nails and toes. I then graduated to using nail scissors and I cut off the dead skin on my heel, big toe, and area underneath my pinky toe. I’m trying to stop I don’t know why I do this it gets bad sometimes like it hurts to walk but I’ve done it for so long

Hello everyone, I am a male aged 18, a senior in high school. I have been picking and eating the skin on my fingers for probably the last 2½ - 3 years? I'm not sure exactly but I REALLY would like to stop. Nobody knows about it, my friends and family always ask me "what's wrong with your fingers?" And I just say that I scraped it or make up some other dumb excuse. I have tried so many different things in the past years to try to stop this disgusting habit and I think I may have finally found something that works for me. Recently I have started to learn guitar, so now if I'm at home and get the sudden urge to pick, I pick up my guitar and strum away until the urge is gone! I understand this might not work for everyone but I have tried many different things to get myself to stop so I think everyone can stop themselves in different ways. I encourage anyone else to consider learning to play any instrument really. You will learn to play an instrument and get rid of your habits simultaneously! I've been reading posts on this site for the past year or so and it's really helped me so I hope I can help you all as much as you've helped me. :)